Read it Later: 2015

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

top tech 2015 diamandis

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Fwd: End the Year with Our Favorite Talks of 2015

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Eric Ries & Team at Lean Startup Co. <confnews@leanstartup.co>
Date: Tue, Dec 22, 2015 at 12:11 PM
Subject: End the Year with Our Favorite Talks of 2015
To: steve <stevescott@techacq.com>

End the Year with Our Favorite Talks of 2015

We love hearing about all the different ways that people are internalizing Lean Startup principles. Eric Ries' scientific approach continues to embolden a global community of thought leaders, many of whom we heard from at this year's Lean Startup Conference.

Before we give 2015 a rest, we're looking back at the powerful talks that our conference attendees told us they loved most. So regardless of whether you were able to make our big event, we have eight important and entertaining bits of workplace wisdom to share.

1. The Modest Experiments That Became Huge Companies

Know this: Successful companies start by focusing on small target communities and growing their MVP from there.

Laura Klein's (Users Know) lightning tips talk spotlights the small-scale experiments that today's big tech darlings crafted on their way to global domination. Examples include focusing on problems affecting a core group of users (Facebook), building an internal tool whose effectiveness could be calibrated in real time (Slack), testing assumptions locally before scaling those ideas globally (Airbnb), and creating a product manually before getting into automation (Product Hunt).

2. The 10 Keys to Building a Strong Community

Know this: Sending your users personal emails, memorable swag, and other messages that they're important keeps them involved with your brand.

Speaking of Product Hunt, founder Ryan Hoover knows how to stoke and support a rabid fanbase, and he has great advice for growing a community of your own. Highlights include seeding that initial base and personally welcoming new users, recognizing both good behaviors and the bad actors, and sharing mockups of redesign concepts with your users. "You're changing their home," he says of the importance of design transparency, "so you want to make them feel like they're part of the design process."

3. How to Intentionally Design a Lean Startup Culture

Know this: Map out the right kind of culture for your business with this cool new tool.

Strategyzer's Alexander Osterwalder understands that the belief systems, attitudes, and values held by employees directly affect the products a company creates. He's part of the team behind The Culture Map, which helps organizations intentionally shape the purveying ethos in an office. He shows us how to use this tool to design a Lean Startup culture.

4. Testing the Riskiest Assumptions First

Know this: Build stronger startups by testing the assumptions that could topple your business before you tackle the easy stuff.

Gagan Biyani has been involved with renowned startups Udemy, Lyft, and Sprig, companies that maintain their singular missions while changing what they've created over time. He shares the specific Lean Startup practices that've made these organizations so successful, including strategizing creative ways to solve customer problems and untethering your ego from the products your company creates.

5. Applying Lean Startup to Storytelling

Know this: Savvy movie producers and fiction publishers alike are crafting tighter audience feedback loops that allow them to edit their way to big hits.

There's nothing Lean Startup about the typical Hollywood blockbuster. As Telepathic's Prerna Gupta explains, studios generally sink hundreds of millions of dollars into a production and hope they have a hit on their hands. But there are ways to use data and audience feedback to create more compelling movies — and books — while keeping the artistic process intact. Gupta explains how to fine-tune both our storytelling methods and the business models supporting them, through examples ranging from The Martian to her company's innovative text message YA novels.

6. Spreading Intrapreneurship Across an Organization

Know this: Instigate genuine innovation in your organization by creating a model for intrepreneurship that empowers people in all levels of the company to build and test new ideas.

So you've become your company's innovation evangelist — how do you go from being a singular force to incentivizing widespread change? Intuit's Bennett Blank breaks down the steps through which Lean Startup practices moved through his company, such as allowing coworkers to make these practices their own and giving people a safe space in which to test out new ideas.

7. The Playbook for Creating Product Market Fit

Know this: Make sure the products your business creates are the ones your target customers really want by taking a page or two from the Lean Product Playbook.

Dan Olsen, author of The Lean Product Playbook, takes us through the methodology behind his book, which includes determining the underserved needs of your specific customer base and creating a strong value proposition and MVP.

8. Lean Startup, The Musical

Know this: Definitely the funniest interpretation of Lean Startup ideas that we've ever seen. Really, you're just gonna have to watch this one. Especially if you're a TLC fan.

We'd yet to get serenaded by stories of innovation until we met designer William McDonnell.

What's Next in 2016

On that (ahem) note, there's more cool stuff on the horizon for 2016: we'll host our annual flagship conference in San Francisco, of course. Save the date for the Lean Startup Conference Week on November 1 - 7. It's the one week in the year where you'll strengthen your foundation of the Lean Startup methodology, learn advanced strategies and tactics for implementing Lean within your organization, and meet experts from your industry who are facing similar challenges. Early bird registration opens in January.

And if you can't wait til Fall to see us, there's our inaugural Lean Startup Labs series, which are industry-focused summits around the country. We're starting with an enterprise lab in New York City in February; later in the year we'll have summits in Detroit and New Orleans on startups and social good, respectively.

See you next year!

Eric, Melissa, Heather, and the entire 2015 Lean Startup Conference team

P.S. Still deciding on the perfect holiday gift for your boss or colleague? Or want to get yourself a treat this Christmas? Get access to the HD, commercial-free 2015 Lean Startup Conference Video Bundle instantly for only $299. And, because we're in the spirit of giving, we'll throw in the 2014 Conference Video Bundle (valued at $299) for any purchases before January 1st. Enjoy!

Facebook

Twitter

Website

Forward

This email was sent to stevescott@techacq.com
why did I get this? unsubscribe from this list update subscription preferences
Lean Startup Co. · 340 S. Lemon Ave. #2197 · Walnut, CA 91789 · USA

Sunday, December 20, 2015

Fwd: driving innovation: part 2

Last week, I wrote about increasing innovation in your company.

This week, in Part 2, we'll talk about how to create the right environment and incentives for innovation to flourish.

Today's blog outlines a few key ideas and strategies I've found to be extremely effective.

[ Click to Tweet about this (you can edit before sending): http://ctt.ec/KWYB9 ]

Fear of Failure =Fear of Innovation

The day before something is truly a breakthrough, it's a crazy idea.

But few companies actually try crazy ideas -- especially the most successful ones.

Fear of failure paralyzes creativity, stops risk taking, and ultimately slows innovation down to a halt.

Why do people fear failure?

Three principal reasons…

Fear impacting their reputation: "If I fail, I won't get the promotion."
Fear of losing time: "I've invested two years of my life, we can't fail now!"
Fear of losing money: "I've invested way too much money, we can't fail now!"

How do you minimize fear of failure?

The right environment and the right incentives.

The 5-5-5 Program

A decade ago, Michael Schrage, a Research Fellow at MIT's Sloan School, shared an elegant idea with me for creating a conducive environment for innovation in your company. He called it the 5-5-5 Program. Below is my variation on his concept.

Here's the basic idea:

Teams of 5: Break your company (division, group, etc.) into teams of five people. Try to maximize diversity in the group (gender, age, expertise).

Why 5 people? There's no "CEO" of a team of 5 people. There's no need for an org chart or a communication plan. Information flows freely and there's reasonable idea diversity. This is similar to Jeff Bezos' 'two-pizza rule'… an ideal working team size.

$500 or $5,000: Next allocate a budget for each of the teams… Something on the order of $500 to $5,000. This is the amount of money each team will spend during this program – enough money for the team to try a few experiments, without breaking the corporate piggy bank.

5 Days or 5 Weeks: Give the teams a fixed (short) amount of time to run a number of experiments to see if their idea has merit and gets traction. The amount of time is sufficiently short such that there are no negative consequences if nothing useful materializes.

Here are your instructions and parameters to your competing teams:

Principle 1: Most Exciting Results -- Make it clear that you are looking for the "Most Exciting" results (or, in some cases, the "Most Specific" results). This will encourage teams to get creative and test "crazy" ideas that might have been distracting or taboo in any other context.
For example, you might say: "I want you to try risky, crazy ideas. I want you to experiment. I want you to try a few ideas that haven't been tried in our company before. I expect that most ideas won't succeed, and that's okay. Have fun with this. My goal is to reward creativity. Surprise me!"
Principle 2: Failure is Okay – Remind teams that failure is okay. The only failure that is not acceptable is that they don't try new and different Ideas. Communicate the notion that small ideas won't get your attention.
Principle 3: The Best Idea Wins – This is a competition, and the best idea, as determined by your executive team or companywide vote, wins the game. Depending on your bandwidth or budget, offer a compelling, exciting reward for the best idea. Perhaps offer to fund and implement the best idea(s).
Principle 4: Collaboration is Key – Finally, remind the groups that if any one team succeeds in reaching the target, the whole company wins. Encourage collaboration and tell them that teams that collaborate will also be rewarded. You need to drive collaboration to increase the probability of great ideas bubbling to the top, and even collaboration across teams.

Remember -- it's critical that your team collects data on their experiments. Data is everything, so make sure they've identified their targets and understand their key performance indicators (KPIs).

Now, run the experiment.

You may be shocked by the results – the creativity and originality of your own employees is astounding.

Darwin's Theory of Innovation

As it turns out, Darwin's theory from On The Origin of Species also holds true for the Origin (and Evolution) of Ideas (i.e. Innovation).

The same conditions that increase the rate of biological evolution also drive the greatest rate of idea generation.

When Darwin wrote the Origin of Species in 1859, he discussed three primary conditions as the drivers for "Speciation" (the formation of new species):

Small gene pool (small breeding group)
High evolutionary selection pressures
Geographic isolation

Metaphorically speaking, "speciation" is very similar to "ideation," or the formation of new ideas.

And interestingly, the same conditions that led to speciation also lead to ideation.

Small Gene Pool = Small Team Size: As discussed in the 5-5-5 segment above, small diverse teams ranging in size from five to eight are ideal for breeding new ideas. Having too large a group can create artificial social pressures that prevent individuals from raising their hands or taking risks. Beyond this, larger groups typically have too many naysayers that tend to squelch outlier ideas.

High evolutionary selection pressures: Historically, we've seen incredible innovation during times of war (e.g. Kelly Johnson's Skunkworks inventing the first jet aircraft in 1945). High-pressure environments incentivize people to try crazy 'Hail Mary' ideas, and while most fail, if one works, it is usually a true innovation.

Geographic Isolation: Place your "innovation team" outside the mother ship, far away from the hordes that will tell them how "crazy" their ideas are. True innovation is massively disruptive and the average employee hates disruptive change. Steve Jobs isolated his Macintosh team far away from the rest of Apple and proudly flew a pirate flag above the building.

Join Me

This is the sort of conversation we explore at my 250-person executive mastermind group called Abundance 360.

The program is highly selective. If you'd like to be considered, apply here.

Share this with your friends, especially if they are interested in any of the areas outlined above.

P.S. Every week I send out a "Tech Blog" like this one. If you want to sign up, go to Diamandis.com and sign up for this and Abundance Insider.

P.P.S. I've just released a podcast with my dear friend Dan Sullivan called Exponential Wisdom. Our conversations focus on the exponential technologies creating abundance, the human-technology collaboration, and entrepreneurship. Head here to listen and subscribe: a360.com/podcast

If you wish to stop receiving our emails or change your subscription options, please Manage Your Subscription
PHD Ventures , 800 Corporate Pointe, Culver City, CA 90230

This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
www.avast.com

Monday, December 14, 2015

Fwd: Notes for today's script writing webinar + everything you need to know abou class today

-------- Forwarded Message --------

Subject:	Notes for today's script writing webinar + everything you need to know abou class today
Date:	Sun, 13 Dec 2015 11:09:41 -0500 (EST)
From:	Eric@ericlofholm.com
To:	stevescott@techacq.com

Dear Steve,

You are registered for the Script Writing Webinar today from 9-4 pm pacific.

Here is everything you need to know about class today.

This is the Facebook group we will be using if you want to interact on Facebook during class.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ELIsaleschampion/

This is the Twitter page we are using if you want to interact on Twitter

http://twubs.com/EricLofholmSystem

These are the login instructions.

To join the webinar go to: www.joinwebinar.com
Enter Webinar ID: 133-490-635 and your email
To listen over the phone dial: (914) 614-3221 Access Code: 958-855-081

You will be writing 2 scripts in class today. These are the notes we will be going over in class.

Have a great session with me today!

Appointment Setting

Your outcome when you set an appointment is to set an appointment. It is not to sell a product or service.

There is a teeter-totter in the mind of your prospect. On one side is time and on the other side is value

The basic premise is you are asking the prospect for their time. You must show them the value they are going to receive for giving you there time.

My definition of an appointment is anytime you can get your message in front of your prospect where they can make a buying decision.

I book the following type of appointments:

1:1 phone
1:1 face to face
Coffee meetings
Webinars
Conference calls
Front of the room speaking
Get people in front of my videos
Emails where there is an offer

Niche appointments

You don't have to call it an appointment

Free 2016 planning coaching session

Free script critique

Free seminar

Where you are inviting make it special

The benefits of the appointment are different than the benefits of your product or service. Consider communicating some of the following benefits.

Fun
Networking
Get your questions answered
You will learn great ideas/I will share with you great ideas
You will understand how I can help you
I will share with you what other properties have sold for in the area
There is nothing to buy (use only if you are doing a 2 call close)
We are having a great speaker
Communicate possibilities
Health possibilities
Wealth possibilities
______ possibilities

This is the basic structure I use when booking an appointment.

This is who I am.
This is why I am calling.
This is what I would like to do.
Would you like to do it?

When booking an appointment you need to close it. Here are some final, final closes.

How do you feel about scheduling an appointment?

I am open on Tuesday or Wednesday at 4. What would work best for you?

I would like to pop in for a few minutes next week to share a quick idea with you. Does that work for you?

Would you like to schedule an appointment?

Let's have coffee. I am buying.

Sample Appointment

Who would I speak with in regards to being a guest speaker at your office?

You would need to speak with ____?

Can you transfer me please?

Hi this is _____

Hi ____, how are you today? Let them respond.

This is Eric Lofholm. I am the president of Eric Lofholm International. We are a Rocklin based sales training firm. The reason for the call today is I am teaching a 1 day sales mastery seminar in your area. Because of that event I am coming to offices like yours and doing 30-45 minute complimentary sales trainings on the topic of your choice.

Popular topics are Time Management, How to Close, and How to Set Unlimited Appointments.

How do you feel about me being a guest speaker at one of your upcoming sales meetings?

Sample Email

Subject: Sales Training Info from Eric Lofholm

Hi _______,

It was great speaking with you today. Here is the information about the free, motivational workshop we are offering.

Here is a link to a webpage where our founder, Eric Lofholm explains how it works on a short video. To watch the video go to http://saleschampion.com/go/freetraining/

We are offering you and your sales team a 30 to 45 minute customized sales training on the topic of your choice.

Popular topics include:

1. How to Close
2. The Mindset of a Sales Champion
3. How to Generate Unlimited Referrals
4. How to Sell in the New Economy
5. How to Set and Achieve your Goals

The benefit to you is:

1. Your team will receive a motivational, professional sales training from an Eric Lofholm Trainer.

2. Everyone in the meeting will get a least 1 great idea they can immediately implement.

3. The intention of the meeting is for our trainer to deliver information to your team to help them make more sales.

There is at least one person on your team that could really benefit from hearing a positive, uplifting message about increasing sales.

How it works is one of our trainers would join you at an upcoming meeting. The training would be delivered on a conference call, webinar or onsite. We can provide the conference call line or webinar if you need us to.

There is no charge for the workshop. All we ask for is 5 minutes at the end to introduce a sales increasing program to your team.

To request a workshop for your team simply reply to this email. I will phone you back to answer any questions that you have and to schedule the workshop. Once the workshop is scheduled your trainer will phone you to customize the workshop for you and your team.

Success,

Your name

Sample Email 2

Subject: I was referred to you by Michael Price ??Eric, ??I am very impressed with your background and your web site! ??One of my publishing clients, Michael Price has referred me to you. He mentioned that he recently attended one of your workshops and learned of your goal of getting your book published in 2008? ??As a best-selling author, and publishing coach, I can help you achieve this goal if you are serious about releasing your book this year. I will be mailing you a copy of my book and publishing package for your review. When you get a moment, please call or email if you are interested in a complimentary publishing consultation. ??

Respectfully: ??

PATRICK SNOW ?Best-Selling Author - International Speaker ?

Publishing Coach - Internet Entrepreneur ?www.CreateYourOwnDestiny.com ?www.BestSellerPublishingCoaching.com ?
P.O. Box 10864 - Bainbridge Island, WA 98110 ?
Office: 800.951.7721 Cell: 206.310.1200

Sample Social Media Direct Message on Facebook

Hi Eric,

I saw your training through Joe Syverson. Excellent information! You truly deliver the techniques in a way that people can actually use them and take action.

Would like to connect with you about collaborating. I train hundreds of networkers every week.

My mobile is 815-985-xxxx, what is the best number to reach you at?

Sample Social Media Message on Facebook

Hi Rodney,
I am doing a free 3-hour sales training in Denver next Wed. It is from 830 to 1130.
Can you help me get the word out?
I can give you 2 min from the front of the room to promote ceo space

Sample Social Media Message on Facebook

Hi Clate, I have a vision to build my sales training company to 1,000,000 clients. I am looking for a CRM to refer my clients to. Since I am a client of yours I wanted to speak with you about my vision and see if we should pursue a conversation. I am requesting 15 minutes to explore this with you. Let me know if you are open to a conversation

Hi Frank,
I am going to be in town teaching a seminar for a client.
While I am in NY I want to do a 3 hour free event.
www.saleschampion.com
I would love to hear any ideas you have.
Eric

Assignment

Write an appointment setting script or an appointment setting template

The Close

Sections of the close

Transition into the close
Body of the close
Final, final close

Transition into the close

What I would like to do now is share with you how I work with clients like you.
What I would like to do now is share with you how my ongoing coaching program works.
What I would like to do now is share with you the next step if you would like to work with me

Body of the close

In the body of the close you are going to explain the offer.

Final, final close

This is the final sentence you say when you ask for the order

Examples of final, final closes

Are you ready to get started?
Sign here please
You can start with a 1-month supply or a 3-month supply. What works best for you?
To order go to www.buymyproduct.com.
To order call (888) 888-8888
Click the "Buy" button to order
To register simply fill out this form and fax it back to (916) 654-9445

How do you feel close

How do you feel about scheduling an appointment today?
How do you feel about helping me out with a few referrals today?
How do you feel about getting started today?

Closing is as easy as 1,2,3

Make a laundry list of the components of the close.
Put the components in order to create a closing outline.
Write a mini script for each section of the outline

1. Make a laundry list of the components of the close.

Components of the close

Price
Guarantee / Warranty
Length of contract
Incentive for buying today
Method of payment
Terms of payment
Bonuses
Scarcity
Call to action
Explain the offer
Consequences of not taking action

2. Put the components in order to create a closing outline.

Name of program
What is included
What you will learn
Bonus
Total value of the program
Guarantee
Price discount for taking action

Close template for coaching

Scarcity
How it works
Investment
Guarantee
Call to action

3. Write a mini script for each section of the outline.

Coaching Enrollment Close

What I would like to do now is spend a few minutes with you and let you know how my coaching program works.
Do you believe by working with a coach you would be more likely to follow through on your goals and commitments? Let them respond.
Here is how my coaching program works.
The investment in the program is $250 per month or $500 per month.
For $250 you would receive 2 30-minute calls.
For $500 you would receive 4 30-minute calls.
The maximum number of clients I work with is 20
I guarantee the program is going to help you. The way the guarantee works is if you are unhappy for any reason during the first 30 days I will give you a full refund. At the end of 30 days the program goes to month-to-month. You can stay in the program as long as you are receiving benefit.
Would you like to be one of the 20 clients I work with?
Would you like to do 2 calls or 4 calls per month?
You can pay month-to-month or if you prepay 3 months you will receive the 4^th month at no charge. What would work best for you? We accept all major credit cards. Which credit card would you like to use?

Telemarketing Close

I am so excited to be able to offer you our Sales Presentation Boot Camp. There is no training program or seminar in the world like this program. Eric is one of the best script writers in the world. He will be sharing with you his proven formulas so you can incorporate them into your scripts.
At the Sales Presentation Boot Camp Eric will teach you how to create a winning sales presentation. The program is on Saturday and Sunday December 8-9 in San Diego.
The program starts with a 4 week teleseminar to prepare you for the boot camp.
Here is the call schedule
Call 1 Set Your Goal – Outline - Close
Call 2 Identify Stories – Identify Benefits
Call 3 Opening – Probing Questions
Call 4 Put is All Together
The investment is $1,995.
We have just added a special bonus. It is called the Script Writing Club. Here is how it works.
Lifetime Membership into the Script Writing Club
Lifetime Membership into the Script Writing Club
Repeat the Sales Presentation Boot Camp as often as you want for life
Access to numerous bonus script writing conference calls and podcasts
Private Web Site Access to scripts Eric has written.
This bonus is valued at $2,000.
The program is backed by a 100% money back guarantee. If after attending the program you are unhappy for any reason we will refund your tuition 100%.
Lastly we have a $1000 early bird discount making your total investment only $995. Would you like to register for the program?

Success Assignment

Write down your close word –for-word.

The assignment is to write down your close word –for-word.

The assignment is not to write the perfect close

To change your email address or unsubscribe,

click here.

Eric Lofholm International, Inc 6518 Lonetree Blvd Suite 178 Rocklin, California 95765 United States (916) 789-9966

This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
www.avast.com

Sunday, December 13, 2015

Fw: driving innovation: part-1

From: Peter Diamandis <peter@diamandis.com>

Sent: Sunday, December 13, 2015 10:15 AM

To: STeve

Reply To: peter@diamandis.com

Subject: driving innovation: part-1

Where do you get your most innovative ideas?

How do you increase the rate of innovation in your company?

It's probably the most important question a CEO or entrepreneur can ask.

Today's blog (part 1 of 2) outlines some of the most powerful ideas I've learned for stimulating solutions to your problems.

Here are three strategies to increase the rate of novel idea generation in your company.

[ Click to Tweet about this (you can edit before sending): http://ctt.ec/KWYB9 ]

Mash-Ups Matter

As Matt Ridley famously described in The Rational Optimist – it's important for "ideas to have sex."

This is how new ideas are made -- I merge your idea and my idea and it becomes something new and valuable.

As you might imagine, if new idea generation is a function of "idea interaction," then the rate of people interacting matters a lot.

For most of human history, human populations were spread out over vast distances and interaction was limited.

More recently, we've been moving into cities:

In the 1950s, 7% of the population lived in cities.
Today, a little over 38% of people live in cities.
By 2050, 70% of the world's population will live in cities.

Intuitively enough, as the rate of urbanization (and the density of a group of people) increased, so too did the rate of invention – one study suggests that doubling a city's population drives a 15% increase in income, wealth and innovation.

This principle is equally applicable to your business. Here are a few ideas:

Use an Open Office Layout: Open environments encourage interaction and random conversations. They allow for the free flow and exchange of ideas.
Design Spaces for Employee Interaction: When Steve Jobs was designing the new headquarters for Pixar, he obsessed over how the atrium should be structured. Jobs was very particular about where the bathrooms were placed in Pixar's office because he wanted "serendipitous personal encounters" to occur.
Unconference Your Team: One fun way to drive employee idea exchange is called an 'Unconference'. Say you have 100 people in your group. Allocate 40 speaking slots (say 5 different rooms with 8 timeslots of 10 minutes each). Then, ask people to pick a spot and sign up to give a 10-minute talk on any subject, personal or professional. All of a sudden you have a random agenda that's been populated by your employees. You will be amazed to see what comes out when people are given a platform to share their passions.
Allow Ideas to Come from All Levels of Your Organization: As a manager, you might pay more attention to your VP than you do to the person who works in the mailroom. But breakthrough ideas can come from unexpected places. Make sure you have a communication outlet that allows ideas to bubble up from anywhere, across disciplines and layers of the organization.

The Power of Constraints

You've probably heard the phrase "Think outside the box" (a thousand times).

The truth is: to be really innovative, you need to start thinking in a really small box.

Let me explain.

When you give people a hard problem, and then give them unlimited resources to solve it, they typically take a conservative route… spending a lot of money and taking a lot of time in an effort to avoid failure. It's human nature.

However, when you ask them to deliver 10x performance, with severely limited resources (i.e. 1/10th the budget and 1/10th the time), it drives invention and innovation.

Typically, one of two results emerge:

Participants shrug their shoulders and say, "That's crazy, it can't be done." They write it off immediately, and they're out of the game (this is what the majority of people do).
A few brave souls will give it a try. Knowing that the old ways can't possibly work, they start with a clean sheet of paper and invent new approaches. Even if they don't succeed, they will pioneer new strategies that didn't exist before.

This is effectively what I did with the Ansari XPRIZE. I put out a highly constrained challenge – just $10 million, for a 3-person spaceship flying twice to space within two weeks.

Musk did this with Tesla, creating an epic car company with no legacy, no unions, no old factories and no old approaches.

Key Takeaway: Create hyper-constraints on your team. Set a difficult goal driven by a powerful massively transformative purpose and incentivize them to try new ways of attacking the problems you want solved.

Young & Naive Drives Innovation

We have an age bias in most companies. We tend to give the oldest, most experienced people the hardest jobs and the most responsibilities.

But history tells us that if you want true innovation, give the hardest, craziest challenges to the youth (or at least youthfully minded) in your company.

Here's some backup for that claim…

At what age do you think most Noble Laureates do their prize winning work? Not win their medal, but actually publish the research?

Turns out, it's in their mid to late twenties. A few examples, Nobel and otherwise, follow.

Albert Einstein was 26 when he published the Special Theory of Relativity.
Jonas Salk was 30 when the March of Dimes funded his polio research.
James Watson was 25 when he co-published his breakthrough scientific paper on DNA.
Isaac Newton was 23 when he began inventing calculus.
Marie Curie began investigating radioactivity at age 30 and earned two Nobel Prizes by age 45.
Galileo published his first piece at age 22, and began experimenting with falling objects in his late 20s.

What do you think was the average age of the engineers who invented the Apollo program in the 1960's (designed the propulsion, guidance, etc.)?

It was about 27 years old.

Fast forward 30 - 40 years to the dot.com revolution… What was the average age of the innovators building the startups we know and love? Microsoft, Apple, Google, Paypal, Facebook, etc.

Again, they were in their 20's.

As Pearl S. Buck, the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, said, "The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible… and achieve it, generation after generation."

My point -- be careful of your age bias.

It shows up everywhere… Check out these stats from the National Institute of Health (NIH), where funding is increasingly goes to older researchers.

In 1980, 10% of all NIH grants went to 'young researchers' – between the age of 31 and 33.
In 2006, only 1% went to 'young researchers'.
In 2007, more grants were given to 70-year-old researchers than those under age 30.

Make sure to provide an open environment where your youngest (both physically and mentally) aren't afraid to share their ideas and test their assumptions.

Finally, remember, "the day before something is a breakthrough, it's a crazy idea."

Where in your organization do you allow your teams to try crazy ideas?

More on this next week in Part 2 of this blog where we'll take a look at how to try some crazy (brilliant) ideas.

Join Me

This is the sort of conversation we explore at my 250-person executive mastermind group called Abundance 360.

The program is highly selective. If you'd like to be considered, apply here.

Share this with your friends, especially if they are interested in any of the areas outlined above.

P.S. Every week I send out a "Tech Blog" like this one. If you want to sign up, go to Diamandis.com and sign up for this and Abundance Insider.

If you wish to stop receiving our emails or change your subscription options, please Manage Your Subscription
PHD Ventures , 800 Corporate Pointe, Culver City, CA 90230

Fw: driving innovation: part-1

From: Peter Diamandis <peter@diamandis.com>

Sent: Sunday, December 13, 2015 10:15 AM

To: STeve

Reply To: peter@diamandis.com

Subject: driving innovation: part-1

Where do you get your most innovative ideas?

How do you increase the rate of innovation in your company?

It's probably the most important question a CEO or entrepreneur can ask.

Today's blog (part 1 of 2) outlines some of the most powerful ideas I've learned for stimulating solutions to your problems.

Here are three strategies to increase the rate of novel idea generation in your company.

[ Click to Tweet about this (you can edit before sending): http://ctt.ec/KWYB9 ]

Mash-Ups Matter

As Matt Ridley famously described in The Rational Optimist – it's important for "ideas to have sex."

This is how new ideas are made -- I merge your idea and my idea and it becomes something new and valuable.

As you might imagine, if new idea generation is a function of "idea interaction," then the rate of people interacting matters a lot.

For most of human history, human populations were spread out over vast distances and interaction was limited.

More recently, we've been moving into cities:

In the 1950s, 7% of the population lived in cities.
Today, a little over 38% of people live in cities.
By 2050, 70% of the world's population will live in cities.

This principle is equally applicable to your business. Here are a few ideas:

Use an Open Office Layout: Open environments encourage interaction and random conversations. They allow for the free flow and exchange of ideas.
Design Spaces for Employee Interaction: When Steve Jobs was designing the new headquarters for Pixar, he obsessed over how the atrium should be structured. Jobs was very particular about where the bathrooms were placed in Pixar's office because he wanted "serendipitous personal encounters" to occur.
Unconference Your Team: One fun way to drive employee idea exchange is called an 'Unconference'. Say you have 100 people in your group. Allocate 40 speaking slots (say 5 different rooms with 8 timeslots of 10 minutes each). Then, ask people to pick a spot and sign up to give a 10-minute talk on any subject, personal or professional. All of a sudden you have a random agenda that's been populated by your employees. You will be amazed to see what comes out when people are given a platform to share their passions.
Allow Ideas to Come from All Levels of Your Organization: As a manager, you might pay more attention to your VP than you do to the person who works in the mailroom. But breakthrough ideas can come from unexpected places. Make sure you have a communication outlet that allows ideas to bubble up from anywhere, across disciplines and layers of the organization.

The Power of Constraints

You've probably heard the phrase "Think outside the box" (a thousand times).

The truth is: to be really innovative, you need to start thinking in a really small box.

Let me explain.

However, when you ask them to deliver 10x performance, with severely limited resources (i.e. 1/10th the budget and 1/10th the time), it drives invention and innovation.

Typically, one of two results emerge:

Participants shrug their shoulders and say, "That's crazy, it can't be done." They write it off immediately, and they're out of the game (this is what the majority of people do).
A few brave souls will give it a try. Knowing that the old ways can't possibly work, they start with a clean sheet of paper and invent new approaches. Even if they don't succeed, they will pioneer new strategies that didn't exist before.

This is effectively what I did with the Ansari XPRIZE. I put out a highly constrained challenge – just $10 million, for a 3-person spaceship flying twice to space within two weeks.

Musk did this with Tesla, creating an epic car company with no legacy, no unions, no old factories and no old approaches.

Young & Naive Drives Innovation

We have an age bias in most companies. We tend to give the oldest, most experienced people the hardest jobs and the most responsibilities.

But history tells us that if you want true innovation, give the hardest, craziest challenges to the youth (or at least youthfully minded) in your company.

Here's some backup for that claim…

At what age do you think most Noble Laureates do their prize winning work? Not win their medal, but actually publish the research?

Turns out, it's in their mid to late twenties. A few examples, Nobel and otherwise, follow.

Albert Einstein was 26 when he published the Special Theory of Relativity.
Jonas Salk was 30 when the March of Dimes funded his polio research.
James Watson was 25 when he co-published his breakthrough scientific paper on DNA.
Isaac Newton was 23 when he began inventing calculus.
Marie Curie began investigating radioactivity at age 30 and earned two Nobel Prizes by age 45.
Galileo published his first piece at age 22, and began experimenting with falling objects in his late 20s.

What do you think was the average age of the engineers who invented the Apollo program in the 1960's (designed the propulsion, guidance, etc.)?

It was about 27 years old.

Fast forward 30 - 40 years to the dot.com revolution… What was the average age of the innovators building the startups we know and love? Microsoft, Apple, Google, Paypal, Facebook, etc.

Again, they were in their 20's.

My point -- be careful of your age bias.

It shows up everywhere… Check out these stats from the National Institute of Health (NIH), where funding is increasingly goes to older researchers.

In 1980, 10% of all NIH grants went to 'young researchers' – between the age of 31 and 33.
In 2006, only 1% went to 'young researchers'.
In 2007, more grants were given to 70-year-old researchers than those under age 30.

Make sure to provide an open environment where your youngest (both physically and mentally) aren't afraid to share their ideas and test their assumptions.

Finally, remember, "the day before something is a breakthrough, it's a crazy idea."

Where in your organization do you allow your teams to try crazy ideas?

More on this next week in Part 2 of this blog where we'll take a look at how to try some crazy (brilliant) ideas.

Join Me

This is the sort of conversation we explore at my 250-person executive mastermind group called Abundance 360.

The program is highly selective. If you'd like to be considered, apply here.

Share this with your friends, especially if they are interested in any of the areas outlined above.

P.S. Every week I send out a "Tech Blog" like this one. If you want to sign up, go to Diamandis.com and sign up for this and Abundance Insider.

If you wish to stop receiving our emails or change your subscription options, please Manage Your Subscription
PHD Ventures , 800 Corporate Pointe, Culver City, CA 90230